A Waste Pro garbage truck. | Waste Pro
Published on July 10, 2025 at 3:58 pm
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Waste Pro Jacksonville will pay $1.4 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that 24 Black and Haitian American workers were subjected to slurs and a hostile work environment based on their race and national origin.
The lawsuit said welder Fednol Pierre and other employees were frequently called the N-word and other slurs, as well as statements including “Go back to Haiti, N—–”; “Y’all don’t belong here”; “go back on the banana boat”; “this is Trump country”; and numerous others.”
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Pierre complained repeatedly to supervisors, but the company failed to take action, the suit says.
Despite settling, Waste Pro denies “intentional wrongdoing” and maintains it never violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
The waste hauler states that it agreed to the settlement in the interest of resolving the matter and avoiding the cost of litigation.
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Waste Pro issued a statement to Jacksonville Today saying it has always been committed to “fostering a productive and healthy work environment for its employees that is free of harassment and discrimination.”
“Waste Pro has proactively enhanced our existing training for all company managers, our internal reporting mechanisms, and our companywide communication regarding our robust anti-harassment and discrimination policy,” the statement said.
The initial complaint, filed in September 2023, states that Pierre transferred to the Jacksonville office in October 2021 after working at Waste Pro’s operation in Port St. Lucie since 2019. Just after he got to Jacksonville, he began experiencing racial harassment from a fellow welder, who told him “there is no need for you here,” the suit says.
After repeated slurs, Pierre complained to a maintenance manager, but no action was taken. Pierre said he continued to endure slurs that “were ubiquitous, frequent and occurred openly,” the lawsuit said.
After more complaints from Pierre, a maintenance supervisor began an investigation on March 29, 2022. But as it began, Pierre reported more discriminatory issues and told supervisors that he feared “retaliation based on the investigation.”
Because Waste Pro did not separate Pierre from those who were harassing him, he asked to be moved to a different shift despite a loss of pay, the suit said.
Although Pierre asked that no one disclose that he had reported “ongoing use of racial slurs,” his name got out, the suit said. Then something happened just before the regional human resources manager held a staff meeting to talk with workers about race discrimination.
“[Pierre] and another Black employee discovered a stuffed monkey carrying an American flag in Mr. Pierre’s work area,” the lawsuit said. “Pierre immediately reported the monkey incident to management and demanded the stuffed monkey be removed and that management review video footage and conduct an investigation into the matter; however, no corrective action was taken before the staff meeting.”
The welders who Pierre had complained about then began retaliating, refusing to talk to him about repairs and often leaving him with “the least desirable, most difficult welding tasks to complete at night,” the lawsuit said.
Pierre ultimately resigned May 12, 2022, due to the harassment and lack of action on his complaints, the suit said.
The settlement does not indicate whether any of the employees who made the racial comments remain with Waste Pro, and the company did not respond to Jacksonville Today’s question on that topic.
The $1.4 million will be distributed to Pierre and any Black or Haitian employee who worked at Waste Pro of Jacksonville and was subjected to a hostile work environment in period from 2021 to 2023.
Waste Pro also must hire an officer to oversee its compliance with Equal Employment Opportunity laws and investigate all complaints of race discrimination and/or retaliation for 18 months.
